Facebook for four-year-olds

26 Jun Facebook for four-year-olds

Now we’ve dipped our toe in the pool or should I say ocean, that is social media, I am going to take a closer look at individual platforms. I’ll start with Facebook. This is the first social media platform that I ever used and is one of my favourites, but while sharing your holiday snaps and catching up with friends is a doddle, Facebook needs to be handled with care when it comes to promoting your business.

Why? Because the majority of users are on there to share their holiday snaps and catch up with friends. They don’t really care about your business and a lot of the time; they won’t even notice your page.

Your page being the special page you set up for your business and not the one where you share snaps of yourself on the water chute in Magaluf… It is easy peasy lemon squeezy to set up a business page. Really – just log into your account and on the left hand side of the newsfeed, you’ll see a list of icons under the word EXPLORE

Click on the orange flag marked Pages and then click on the green button marked Create A Page and from there, you pretty much create a page in the same way you did your Facebook profile.

Still can’t do it? Then drop me an e-mail and tell me what the problem is, or ask a Facebook aficionado – likely to be anyone aged 20 – 35.

So, if nobody cares about you, how do you get noticed? It always boils down to the same thing – great content. And by that, I mean, imaginative and creative content that promotes your brand, but doesn’t make the follower feel as if they are being sold to.

Check out these highly successful Facebook pages that were recently listed in Social Media Today as great examples:

Nike – thrilling sports videos and a great reputation for replying to customer queries promptly and in a friendly manner.

SpaceX – Lots of facts, stats and info for the science geek.

National Geographic – Stunning photographs and great content.

If Taco Bell can make fast food seem positively thrilling and Nike create a buzz with sports clothing, then there’s no reason you can’t do the same for your business. You just need to think outside the box.

Instead of posting pictures of your product with a link to buy, tell us how it’s made. Post a video. Get some of your customers to post pictures or videos, explaining how much they like your product. Can’t get them to share? Offer a small prize for the best video or picture; that’ll soon muster up some enthusiasm.

Give your followers something, whether it be a discount code or a brilliant how-to guide that they can’t find anywhere else. Run regular competitions to tie in with special days like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, Christmas etc. The prizes don’t have to be huge, but it helps if they tie in with your product or service, as then you will attract the attention of potential customers as opposed to serial compers.

I will be talking to you about Facebook advertising (the pages that you can’t ignore on Facebook, they’re the ones with paid for advertising!) once I’ve given you a starters guide to some of the other social media platforms. In the meantime, you can have a look at it for yourself.

Go to that list of icons on the left hand side of your newsfeed and under Create click on Advert. Create an account and take a peek at Creative Hub (click on Adverts Manager and you’ll see it pop up on the left hand side).

You can mess around in here; see what ads other people have created and dream up your own mock-ups without having to part with a penny. You can even share you mock-ups with friends and colleagues. It’s great fun. Trust me. Have a go. Don’t be scared….